“This, then, is how you should
pray: 'Our Father in heaven, hallowed be
your name, your kingdom come, your will be done on earth as it is in heaven.
Give us today our daily bread. Forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven
our debtors. And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one.
'” Matthew 6:9-13
Recently, when I woke up I became aware of and took note of
my prayer that morning, and I found myself thanking God… just as I have been
doing a lot lately. Then the thought occurred to me that I do more “thanking”
than anything else anymore! Every morning I thank God for the morning, a good
night sleep (hopefully) and thank Him for orchestrating the day ahead of me. During the day I thank Him for reminding me of
things I need to do, and for the good idea’s he gives me in cooking and
ministering to others and a ton of other things. When I go to bed I thank Him
for my warm bed, the roof over my head, and for all of his amazing provisions
throughout that day. I realized that I don’t “ask” for very much anymore and
when I do ask, I ask for more wisdom, for HIS will to be done and not mine, for
a greater understanding of my own heart, and to ask for a revelation of His
love for me as well as for others.
Then I thought about the Lord’s Prayer and wondered at this
prayer that Jesus said for us to pray:
“This, then, is how you should
pray: 'Our Father in heaven, hallowed be
your name, your kingdom come, your will be done on earth as it is in heaven.
Give us today our daily bread. Forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven
our debtors. And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one.
'” Matthew 6:9-13
As he says at the end
of this scripture (listed below), He already KNOWS what we need before we even
ask Him. I believe my provision has ALREADY been taken care of, before time
even began! God is THAT BIG and THAT good! I am not sure why He would tell us
to pray like that…? Except maybe to just be in communication with Him and be in
His presence and in pursuit of Him? He precedes this prayer with these words:
“And when you pray, do not be like the hypocrites, for they love to
pray standing in the synagogues and on the street corners to be seen by men. I
tell you the truth, they have received their reward in full. But when you pray,
go into your room, close the door and pray to your Father, who is unseen. Then
your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you. And when you
pray, do not keep on babbling like pagans, for they think they will be heard
because of their many words. Do not be like them, for your Father knows
what you need before you ask him.” Matthew 6:5-8
Again, why do we
pray for His provision when we have these scriptures that confirm his loving
care and provision for us as a wonderful heavenly Father?
“Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat
or drink; or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more important
than food, and the body more important than clothes? Look at the birds of
the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly
Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they? Who of you
by worrying can add a single hour to his life? And why do you worry about
clothes? See how the lilies of the field grow. They do not labor or spin. Yet I
tell you that not even Solomon in all his splendor was dressed like one of
these. If that is how God clothes the grass of the field, which is here today
and tomorrow is thrown into the fire, will he not much more clothe you, O you
of little faith? So do not worry, saying, 'What shall we eat?' or 'What shall
we drink?' or 'What shall we wear?' For the pagans run after all these things, and
your heavenly Father knows that you need them. But seek first his kingdom and
his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well.
Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself.
Each day has enough trouble of its own.” Matthew 6:25-34
So what should we ask Him for? The same prayer scripture in
Luke gives us a little more information that the Matthew scripture doesn’t:
He said to them, "When you
pray, say: " 'Father, hallowed be your name, your kingdom come. Give us
each day our daily bread. Forgive us our sins, for we also forgive everyone who
sins against us. And lead us not into temptation. ' " Then he said to
them, "Suppose one of you has a friend, and he goes to him at midnight and
says, 'Friend, lend me three loaves of bread, because a friend of mine on a
journey has come to me, and I have nothing to set before him.' Then the one
inside answers, 'Don't bother me. The door is already locked, and my children
are with me in bed. I can't get up and give you anything.' I tell you, though
he will not get up and give him the bread because he is his friend, yet because of the man's boldness
he will get up and give him as much as he needs. So I say to you: Ask and it will be given to you; seek
and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you. For everyone who
asks receives; he who seeks finds; and to him who knocks, the door will be
opened. Which of you fathers, if your son asks for a fish, will give
him a snake instead? Or if he asks for an egg, will give him a scorpion? If you
then, though you are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children,
how much more will your Father in
heaven give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him!" Luke 11:2-13
Did you catch that?! “…how much more will your Father
in heaven give the Holy Spirit
to those who ask him!” I have
been talking a lot about the difference between the “temporal” perspective and
the “eternal” perspective and I can see His Eternal perspective here. I think the
request for “the Holy Spirit” is a huge key into this mystery of prayer!
God has ALWAYS wanted us to make Him first in our lives. His
greatest commandment to us is “Love the Lord your God with all your
heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.” Matthew 22:37. He wants to be my God
and for me to be HIS child. He wants me to desire HIM above all else and be as
PASSIONATE about my relationship with HIM as He is with ME! It has ALWAYS been
that way with God, in the Old Testament and even in the Garden of Eden. Adam
and Eve were surrounded by everything they needed, they wanted for nothing and they walked with God. But we separated ourselves from Him because of sin… Yet He has continued
to pursue us ever since. As he points out in Psalms 37 “Delight yourself in
the LORD and he will give you the desires of your heart.” If you
delight yourself in HIM then HE will be the desire of your heart, right? And he
will delight to give you more of HIM… again, this is eternal, not temporal!
“…endurance and encouragement…
[and] a spirit of unity” (Romans 15: 5-6)
“…the Spirit of wisdom and
revelation, so that you may know him better… that the eyes of
your heart may be enlightened… [and] that you may know
the hope to which he has called you...” (Ephesians 1:15-19)
“… [that] he may strengthen you with power
through his Spirit in your inner being, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts
through faith. …to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of
Christ, and to know this love that surpasses knowledge—…” (Ephesians
3:14-19)
“…that your love may abound more and
more in knowledge and depth of insight, so that you may be able to discern what
is best …, [and be] filled
with the fruit of righteousness...” (Philippians 1:9-11)
“…to fill you with the knowledge
of his will through all spiritual wisdom and understanding… bearing fruit in
every good work, growing in the knowledge of God, being strengthened… so that
you may have great endurance and patience, and joyfully giving thanks to the
Father...” (Colossians 1:9-14)
And Tom found another scripture that was pretty cool. When Peter and
John were commanded by the religious leaders NOT to speak or teach in the name
of Jesus they prayed for boldness to do what they felt God called them to do!
“… Now, Lord, consider their
threats and enable your servants to speak your word with great boldness… After they prayed, the place where they
were meeting was shaken. And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and
spoke the word of God boldly.” Act 4:24-31
Who among us does that!? But God answered their prayer and did
exactly that! They didn’t pray that their circumstances would change, or rebuke
the devil but they prayed for BOLDNESS to speak what the Holy Spirit led them
to speak, despite the threat of torture and imprisonment! I love it!!
Like I said before, I am on a “Prayer Journey”, learning and
praying for a greater understanding of prayer and its purpose. And as I have
been discovering lately, seeing this through the “eternal” lens and not the
temporal, I do feel like I am getting a little more clarity. So, this is where
I am at so far. I haven’t figured it all out but hopefully I am a little closer
to understanding it better.
I know that there are lots of other prayer scriptures but I
wanted to focus on these as I don’t think we consider them as often as we
should. There is one last prayer scripture that I would like to present and that
is the prayer in John 17 the prayer that Jesus prayed for US. He doesn’t reveal a lot of
what He is praying but what He does say goes along with what Paul prays:
So, the things he is praying for is that we
would become one with God like He is, that we would have HIS joy within us,
that God
would protect us from the evil one, that we would be sanctified, brought
into unity and that the love God had for Him would be in us so
that He would be in us. Wow… what an amazing prayer.
